1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for backing up data. More particularly, embodiments of the invention relate to systems and methods for backing up and recovering data using a single client snapshot.
2. The Relevant Technology
In this society where many personal and business interactions are data driven, data can become easily lost or corrupted due to events such as system failures, viruses, power outages, etc. Backing up data has become an important feature of computer networks because of this increasing dependence upon computers and networks to perform vital business and personal functions. The ability to easily, accurately and reliably access data is expected by anyone accessing a computer and/or network. When a computer or network must be “down” to backup or restore lost data, such down time can critically impact personal and business processes. The demand for uninterrupted access to data corresponds to a need for software and hardware that can meet the demand to provide data and services.
Backup and recovery of data is typically accomplished through the use of software that backs up the data and that recovers the data from the backup copy. As the amount of data continues to increase, backing up and recovering the data becomes more complex. Gigabytes of data cannot currently be quickly transferred from one directory to another and taking a directory offline for backup purposes is an unattractive option.
In addition to backing up file systems, it is becoming more necessary to back up other types of data such as applications and services. However, applications and services often have open files when a backup is initiated. Open files generally cannot be effectively backed up using conventional systems, and are often skipped during backup operations. As a result, additional applications are often needed to help manage backups of open files and to administrate backup logs for files that were skipped during backup.
Operating systems present another challenge to software and systems that back up data. The complexity of operating systems often requires operating systems to be backed up in a logical unit to preserve the state of the system or client. A partial backup of an operating system may result in inconsistencies or system failure if the operating system is restored from a partial or incomplete backup. In other words, backing up the file system itself does not effectively back up the state of the system and may result in errors when recovered. Operating systems are often used with databases or other directories of data that need to be backed up while preserving the state of the system. In addition, operating systems as well as applications and services are often distributed across computer systems, a fact that complicates an effective backup and recovery of the data.
The desire to provide uninterrupted service combined with increased storage requirements creates the need for systems and methods for backing up data quickly and with minimal interruption to applications and services.